Peer Counseling is Too Troublesome
by celestialoceanne
Summary: Shikamaru unwillingly joins the Konoha High School Peer Counseling Program, or KHSPCP for short. Just working with Ino, Choji, and Naruto is troublesome as is, but the moment Suna High School exchange student Temari decides to join, troublesome takes on a whole new meaning. High School AU. Shikatema, Naruhina, Sasusaku, SaiIno, Nejiten, and more!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: There are only three grades at Konoha High School-10th(freshman),11th(junior), and 12th(senior).**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

Shikamaru had always thought of his life as troublesome. Going to school was troublesome. Having friends was troublesome. Just living was troublesome. But _peer counseling_? That was way past troublesome. He'd probably kill himself at that point.

And yet, here he was, at the front office, signing up for the Konoha High School Peer Counseling Program.

He thought back to yesterday, when his life struggles first began.

 _Flashback_

 _It was the third day of school and Shikamaru already wished that summer break was back(don't we all wish that?). His homeroom teacher, Asuma-sensei, was droning on about the stupid programs and clubs Konoha High School offered. He then began to walk around the classroom, handing out flyers for each and every program and club. When Shikamaru lifted his head from the desk, he found a high pile of papers stacked in front of him. He groaned as he sat up straight. He couldn't even see the whiteboard because of the flyers. He grabbed a select few from the top, stuffed them in his bag, and threw the remaining flyers away so that he wouldn't get yelled at for not taking any flyers home. He laid his head back onto the desk and continued his interrupted sleep. 5 minutes later, he heard the bell ring, but he didn't bother getting up. After all, his first period class was advanced math with Asuma-sensei. They were still going over review in that class so there really wasn't a need to participate yet._

 ** _Timeskip_**

 _He kicked his shoes off at the entrance of his house and set his bag down. He heard a woman's voice call out to him as he walked back to his room."Welcome back, Shikamaru," his mom said as she peeked her head out from the kitchen door. "How was school today?"  
_

 _"Troublesome."_

 _Yoshino walked out of the kitchen completely and faced him with her hands on her hips. "Don't give me that," she reproached. "You're the one who asked to go to Konoha High, you should appreciate that you're able to go."_

 _"That doesn't make it any less troublesome. Besides, I only asked to go to Konoha High because the only other option for me was Suna High, which would be even more troublesome."_

 _She gave him an exasperated sigh. "Well, have you decided which club or program you want to join at school yet?"_

 _He was already halfway up the stairs, but he stopped to answer her question. "No, I'm not going to join any of them. They're too troublesome." When he heard silence, he turned around to see why Yoshino hadn't replied. He almost sprinted to his room from the sight. She was so mad, he could almost see steam coming out of her ears. She marched up to him and dragged him downstairs._

 _"I DON'T KNOW WHY EVERYTHING IS SO GODDAMN TROUBLESOME FOR YOU! YOU NEED TO JOIN A CLUB OR SOMETHING OR ELSE YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GO TO A GOOD COLLEGE AND GET A DECENT-PAYING JOB! COLLEGES WANT PEOPLE WHO ARE PRODUCTIVE AND HELPFUL, AND ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO SHOW THAT IS TO DO EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES! I TRIED TO GET YOU TO DO SPORTS AND MUSIC BUT DID YOU TRY AT ALL?! NO! MANY OF THE CLUBS AT KONOHA HIGH AREN'T EVEN THAT DEMANDING! HOW IS IT TROUBLESOME TO JOIN ONE STUPID HIGH SCHOOL CLUB?! YOU NEED TO HAVE A MORE ACTIVE LIFE!" she screamed at him at the top of her lungs. Shikamaru just calmly covered his ears the whole time._

 _"Are you done yet?" he asked her in a weary voice._

 _She let out a whole stream of incoherent words, but she wasn't screaming at him anymore so he began to walk back to his room._

 _"Wait, I'm not done with you yet," she said, chomping on a Snickers bar._ Where did that even come from?! _"I'm serious, you are going to join a club or program or whatever this year. I don't care if it's 'too troublesome'. If you don't, I'm going to burn your entire shogi(Japanese chess) collection. And transfer you to Suna High." With that, she returned to the kitchen, only now eating a Kit Kat bar._ Where were all of these candy bars coming from?!

 _"She must be on her period or something," he thought before going to grab his bag. He let out a sigh and went to his room. He was going to one hell of a time going through the flyers tonight._

 ** _Timeskip_**

 _Shikamaru scratched his head in exasperation. All of the clubs were just too troublesome. Student council, basketball, peer counseling, drama club. There was even a ramen-eating club. Who the fuck would do that?_

 _He looked up as he heard a knock from his door. "Come in," he said, looking back at the flyers in despair. Or was it boredom?_

 _"Your mother told me that you were going to join a club at school." Shikamaru didn't even need to look up to know that his father, Shikaku, was standing behind him. "I'm glad that you're actually going to get out and try something new."_

 _"I don't really want to," Shikamaru said with a sigh. "Mom threatened to burn my shogi collection and transfer me to Suna High."_

 _Shikaku chuckled. "I figured that was the case. But I'm still a little surprised that you wouldn't have just joined the shogi club."_

 _"I've played against all of their players. Beat every single one of them. Didn't even take 5 minutes."_

 _"Really?"_

 _"Yep, and they're supposedly the second best team in the area."_

 _"Who's the best team then?"_

 _"I think they said it's Iwa High. But the shogi club told me that they almost beat them last year so they're probably really not that great."_

 _"You shouldn't look down on people like that, Shikamaru."_

 _"I'm just stating facts."_

 _Shikaku sighed at Shikamaru's response. "Well, I just came in here to give you a little advice. When choosing your club or program or whatever, while it is better to choose one that will look good on your college resume, you need to think a bit about yourself as well." He picked up one of the flyers on Shikamaru's desk. "You should choose one that you will enjoy. Don't choose one only because it benefits you, but because it may make your life that much brighter. I know you're still a freshman, but joining a program like this one may make a huge difference to you and the people around you someday. Think about it, alright?" He placed the flyer back down onto the desk and left._

 _Shikamaru looked at the flyer his father had picked up and read the top. KONOHA HIGH SCHOOL'S PEER COUNSELING PROGRAM! JOIN NOW!_

 _Grabbing a thumbtack from his drawer, he pinned the flyer onto the wall and threw the rest into the trashcan._

 _End of Flashback_

'Dad influences me way too much when it comes to these kind of things,' he grumbled in his head as he continued to fill out the sign-up slip.

 **First name:** Shikamaru

 **Last name:** Nara

 **Grade:** 10

 **Age:** 14

 **Contact Info:** 555-0197

 **Medical concerns:** N/A

He handed the slip to the lady who was working at the front office before lazily walking away. As he stepped outside, he yawned and looked up at the sky.

'Man, I wish I was a cloud.'

 **A/N: Hey, this is just something that came into my mind the other day and I happened to have enough time today to actually start it off. I have a couple other stories that I need to catch up on but oh well, I'm lazy af so whatever. I'll probably edit this story a couple times as well, so sorry :P. If you have any tips, feel free to let me know. Anyways, hope you guys have fun reading this fic.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** ** **I am super sorry for not updating ever! I've had a huge writer's block for this story and being busy with school hasn't helped at all. But I've finally written the second and third chapters so here you go folks!****

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

 ** _Italics- Shikamaru's thoughts(unless obviously otherwise)_  
**

For the first time in his life, Shikamaru wished the clock's hands would move slower.

He had gotten a text that morning from the school office that read: _Hello, Shikamaru Nara. Thank you for joining the Konoha High School Peer Counseling Program. There will be a meeting with your supervisor in the library after school today. Please be there by 2:45._

However, the clock continued to move at its normal pace. If anything, the clock hand seemed to move even faster than usual. In less than 5 minutes, the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. He sighed as he got up and left the classroom. Just his luck, the library was on the other side of campus.

As he opened the library door, the sight that greeted him surprised him.

He had expected that only one or two people besides him would sign up, considering that peer counseling was often viewed as lame by students. But instead, there were... 21, 22, 23, _24_ students waiting in there. He frowned as he walked in. Were there really that many kids interested in helping other people with issues?

Shikamaru sat down at a table far enough away from everyone else that he wouldn't have to get involved with them, but close enough to not be noticed. He checked his phone for the time. The numbers 3:08 graced his screen, with a picture of aesthetic clouds serving as his lock screen wallpaper. (What else was he supposed to put? A picture of his crush? Not like he had one, but still...)

The library door was suddenly slammed open, causing almost everyone in the room to jump. A man in his early 30's entered the room. It was none other than his homeroom and Pre-Calculus teacher, Asuma-sensei. He set down the pile of papers he had been carrying onto one of the library tables, and turned towards the students.

Everyone's began to take a seat down at the tables as he started speaking. "Hello everyone, thank you for joining the Peer Counseling Program." Some people began to clap, but they immediately stopped when he continued. "My name is Sarutobi Asuma, but you may call me Asuma-sensei. For those of you who don't know or have me, I teach Algebra, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus. But that's enough about me. The Konoha Peer Counseling Program is a program me and a couple of students started about 4 to 5 years ago." Asuma-sensei cleared his throat once before continuing. "The main goal of this program is to help fellow students who may have troubles in their lives, and give them advice and counseling. We also help provide support they may otherwise be too scared to ask for or don't know how. Everyone here is to be a role model for others. This includes showing kindness, respect, diligence, and leadership. Failure in any of these will result in you getting dropped from this program. Bad grades will also result in the same consequences. However, at the end of each semester, you will be given the chance to join this program once again.

"We will now go over appointments. Appointments will be used to actively listen to your peers to offer steady advice and help. These appointments will be during lunch on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and after school on Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, we will go through a 'training' for counseling. We will also occasionally host and/or attend events; the events are listed on this paper here." He picked up the first half of the paper stack and handed it to a platinum blonde sitting by him. "Here, pass it around to everyone."

The platinum blonde stood up and began passing the papers around. When Shikamaru received his, he muttered a thanks and proceeded to look at its contents.

 **Peer Counseling Program 20XX-20XX Schedule**

 **\- Homecoming/September 21**

 **\- Konoha Annual Autumn Festival/ October 18**

Shikamaru scanned the rest of the schedule before snapping a quick pic of it(who knows if he'd lose the paper with the schedule later?) and returned his attention to Asuma-sensei.

"If you look at the bottom of the paper you just received," Asuma-sensei said, pointing at said area on his own paper, "you'll see an example agenda of a week in the Peer Counseling Program. Remember to refer to it whenever necessary. Now, moving on," he flipped the paper over. "On the back, you'll see an example of an appointment request form. When we schedule all of the appointments for..."

Shikamaru flipped his paper over, took another quick picture of it, and leaned back in his chair as Asuma-sensei droned on about appointments. He honestly didn't get why Asuma-sensei needed to explain the appointment procedures. One could easily figure it out just by looking at the example on the back of the paper. He wished Asuma-sensei would hurry up with all the introductions and explanations. Asuma-sensei typically never took more than 15 minutes to teach a lesson in his math classes, which Shikamaru personally preferred. It was just the right amount of time for him to master the concept and finish homework with ample time remaining to slee-

"NARA!" Asuma-sensei roared all of a sudden. Shikamaru jolted, his teacher's voice bringing him back from his thoughts. "Did you hear what I was asking?"

"Ummm... if everyone had the Remind app downloaded?"

"... that is correct. However, next time, Shikamaru, at least look like you're paying attention."

"Alright," Shikamaru answered lamely, before muttering _troublesome_. A few kids snickered at Asuma-sensei's comment, but they both decidedly ignored it. It just wasn't worth bothering with.

Asuma-sensei cleared his throat before saying, "Back to what I was saying. If you don't have the Remind app downloaded, just text the number 810-10 the class code. The class code for the Peer Counseling Program is khspcp. Make sure to join. This is where you will receive notifications and announcements related to the Peer Counseling Program. You can also ask me questions through the Remind thread/chat, especially if you're having trouble with a situation concerning any of your peers. If you have trouble joining or you don't have a phone, let me know after this meeting. Now are there any questions?"

One kid on the right raised his hand. "Are you eating a lollipop?"

Asuma-sensei gave the kid a deadpan look before turning away with a fake smile plastered to his face. "Does anyone have any _relative_ questions?" No one raised their hands.

Asuma-sensei cleared his throat uncomfortably, taking a lollipop out of his mouth, before saying, "Well then, if there aren't any questions then we will move onto the icebreakers. Everyone knows what an icebreaker is right?"

"It's an outdoor clothing brand!" a kid in the back yelled.

"Uhhh, not in this situation."

"Isn't an icebreaker like one of those things that sink ships? Like the Titanic?"

A girl wearing pigtails began crying and muttering the names Jack and Rose while another girl next to her tried comforting her.

"That's an iceberg."

"Oh."

"Oooh, oooh! Do you mean icebreakers like the candy?"

"No, if you want candy go to the store and buy some. There's no way I'd waste my money to buy you guys stuff like that."

"AWWWW," the whole room sounded, obviously disappointed that they would not be receiving free food.

 _I don't even like mint-flavored candies anyway,_ Shikamaru thought to himself, lazily drawing circles on his paper with a pen he found on the ground. It was very sparkly.

A girl with pink hair( _pink hair? really?_ ) raised her hand confidently. Once given permission to speak, she said, "An icebreaker is a game or joke that makes people who do not know each other feel more relaxed together." She spoke as if she was answering a question about the mass of a molecule of benzene.

"Thank you for defining what an icebreaker is, though that wasn't exactly what I was looking for." Asuma-sensei paused for a moment. "Did you get that from Urban Dictionary?"

"Nope, Cambridge Dictionary."

"Cool."

"Thanks."

"Name?"

"Haruno Sakura. I'm in your Pre-Calculus class, sir."

"Oh, sorry... well, anyways, we will now be playing an icebreaker to get to know everyone in the program. The game is called Two Truths, One Lie. Everyone knows how to play it right?"

The girl with platinum hair who had passed the papers around earlier raised her hand up like a shotgun. "You play Two Truths, One Lie by sharing three things about yourself; two of them are true and one of them is a lie. Everyone else has to try to guess what the lie is." She shot a look at the girl named Sakura with a look that obviously said, _I'm not going to lose to you!_

Now that Shikamaru looked closely at the platinum haired girl, he realized it was Yamanaka Ino. She was an old family friend, but they were never that close. Ino was always bossing him and his other family friend, Chouji, around whenever their families got together. However, as he and the other two grew older, they hung out less and less until their family meet-ups were practically nonexistent. Not that he missed being around Ino.

"Umm... thank you for the explanation, Yamanaka." Ino put her hand down with a haughty look. Sakura looked irritated by this, and Shikamaru could hear them fighting while whispering.

 _Ha! You're not the only one who can give out answers!_ Ino whispered at her.

 _As if your answer was any great! You just explained how to play a game everyone knows how to play. You might as well have explained how to play Duck, Duck, Goose!_ Sakura fired back.

 _You're just jealous that he remembered my name and not yours!_

 _Who would be jealous of you! You sounded like an idiot just then when you raised your hand!_

 _Who are you calling an idiot, Forehead Girl!_

 _Obviously you, Ino-Pig!  
_

 _Take that back!  
_

 _You take it back first!_

Asuma-sensei cleared his throat( _he clears his throat a lot too much_ ), causing both girls to stop their bickering. "Is there anyone who'd like to go up first for Two Truths, One Lie?"

Both Sakura's and Ino's hand shot up at this.

At this moment, Shikamaru decided to take a nap; he had a feeling this was going to take a long time...

Shikamaru completely regretted joining the Peer Counseling Program's Remind. It was more like joining a group chat than anything. Sakura and Ino from earlier were constantly sending messages back and forth and, of course, fighting. It went along the lines of this:

Haruno Sakura: Hi everyone my name is Haruno Sakura. Hope to have a great year with everyone!

Yamanaka Ino: Hey this is Yamanaka Ino, hope to get along with everyone this year~3

Forehead Girl: Ino, change my name back now!

Yamanaka Ino: What are you talking about Sakura?

Forehead Girl: I know you're the one who changed it, change it back.

Yamanaka Ino: I didn't _do_ anything. And why can't you just change it back? Hm?

Forehead Girl: Because some b*tch has hacked my computer and made it unable for me to fix it.

Sarutobi Asuma: Language, Haruno. And Yamanaka, if you did change her name, turn it back.

Yamanaka Ino: Ugggh, fine

Haruno Sakura: _Thank you_

Yamanaka Ino: You're welcome ;) 3

 _15 minutes later_

Haruno Sakura: I'll have a strawberry smoothie

Haruno Sakura: Oops wrong chat sorry

Yamanaka Ino: Is this strawberry smoothie from Jamba Juice? And are you going to pick it up at Jamba Juice as well?

Haruno Sakura: Yes, why?

Yamanaka Ino: I bet you're going so that you can hit on Sasuke-kun! How could you?! You know that I like him!

Sarutobi Asuma: Language, Yamanaka.

Haruno Sakura: Who on earth are you talking about? The only guy that I know that is working at Jamba Juice is Naruto...

Yamanaka Ino: Don't lie to me!

Haruno Sakura: Ino, which Jamba Juice do you normally go to?

Yamanaka Ino: The one by the school?

Haruno Sakura: I go to the one by the Konoha Sports Stadium. We're talking about totally different Jamba Juices here.

Yamanaka Ino: oh... sorry Sakura

Haruno Sakura: But if this Sasuke-kun works at the Jamba Juice by our school, maybe I should start going to there :)

Yamanaka Ino: Don't you freaking dare!

Haruno Sakura: lol I'm just joking

Yamanaka Ino: Okay good

Haruno Sakura: But if I do happen to stop by there sometimes... :)

Yamanaka Ino: Don't you dare!

Shikamaru groaned as his phone screen lit up once more. Ino's and Sakura's texts were driving him crazy. Did they ever get tired of texting each other?! It was already 2:34 in the morning! He covered his head with his pillow and curled up into a ball on his bed. He was definitely going to complain about this tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry, this chapter is a little short. I also didn't write the scene where Shikamaru and Chouji become friends exactly like the actual series, but oh well! Hope you enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

Shikamaru had never dreaded anything more than going to peer counseling. Well, except maybe going home to an angry Yoshino. Which he was going to encounter if he didn't continue with peer counseling. He let out a depressed sigh. _Why did he have to live with such a troublesome mom?_

He pushed open the heavy library doors to see Ino and Sakura bickering. Again. Those two had spammed the Remind group chat with their useless and ridiculous name-calling until 4:30, and they still had the energy to continue it even now?! Shikamaru got a headache just from looking at them fight. Today was supposed to be their first day of counseling too. He wouldn't be surprised if he ended up jumping off a bridge by the end of the day.

When Asuma-sensei entered the library, Shikamaru almost screamed hallelujah. Everyone shut up, even Ino and Sakura.

"Welcome to the first actual day of Konoha High's Peer Counseling Program," Asuma-sensei drawled. "I'll start passing out the counseling forms to work on with your partner." Ino and Sakura, somewhat surprisingly, immediately latched onto each other's arms. "I will be assigning your partners, but if any of you have a problem with that," he said, giving the two girls a look as they dejectedly split apart, "you can give me a list of at least 30 _valid_ reasons and I'll think about it. Unless the reasons are very serious and need to be addressed, I probably won't even look past Reason #5. Otherwise, you're stuck with that partner until the end of the semester. I'll start assigning your partners now."

Shikamaru silently prayed that he wouldn't get a troublesomem partner. Getting someone who likes to help others and is actually good at giving advice would be nice. But with his luck, he'd probably just get an aggravating idiot.

"Nara Shikamaru..." His ears perked up at this. He suddenly felt his heart begin to race a little as he listened for the next words that would come out of Asuma-sensei's mouth. "... and Yamanaka Ino."

"WHAT?!" Ino screeched. _Why did it have to be her?_ Shikamaru inwardly groaned. With her as his partner, the poor student they'd be counseling would probably end up being depressed(if they weren't already).

As she shot him a snotty look, she stood up to go retrieve the counseling form from Asuma-sensei. But as she read it walking back towards Shikamaru, the snotty, disgusted look on her face disappeared and was replaced with an amused smile. "Hey Shikamaru, guess who we're helping out!" She handed the form to him and his eyes immediately gravitated towards the top of the form where the student's name was written. His eyes widened, and he read it over and over again to make sure he hadn't read wrong.

It said Akimichi Chouji.

While Chouji had been an old family friend of his along with Ino, they had actually been friends from before too...

 _10 years ago_

 _"Let's play Ninja!" a boy wearing a hat yelled. Being the biggest, he had automatically assumed the role of the leader of the band of boys that had been playing at the park. The others cheered in agreement as some of the boys went to gather toy shuriken for the game._

 _A shy chubby boy approached them nervously from behind. After gathering his courage, he timidly asked, "Can I play too?"_

 _"Hah?" One of the boys turned around to see the chubby boy chewing his lip, waiting for their approval. "You wanna play Ninja?"_

 _The chubby boy nodded excitedly. But his face fell as the others laughed. The boy who had asked him the question gave him a look of contempt before saying, "You can't play Ninja with us! Whatever team you're on is gonna lose cause you're so slow! Go away, fatty!" The boys howled with laughter and started chanting, "FATTY, FATTY, FATTY, FATTY!" The chubby boy could feel tears threatening to trickle down as the words seemed to grow louder with each second._

 _"Hey, knock it off!" He looked up in surprise as he saw that one of the boys had yelled out at the rest of the gang. It was a boy with a ponytail and a lazy look on his face, calmly putting his hands in his pockets. "Games with odd numbers aren't any fun. Even games like shogi are only fun when played with equal numbers of pieces." The chubby boy stared in awe at this new, cool boy who had stood up for him, in a way, and he turned excitedly towards the leader in hopes that he would reconsider._

 _However, the words that came out of the leader's mouth were words of scorn. "Well, having useless pieces is the same as not having any pieces at all!" The rest of the boys chattered away like monkeys as the chubby boy walked dejectedly away. As he walked away, he didn't notice the boy with the ponytail walking away from the group of boys as well.\_

 _"Hey, you!" a voice exclaimed on his side. Chouji turned to see who had spoken. It was the boy with the ponytail who had stood up for him earlier!_

 _"You're that..."_

 _"I'm Nara Shikamaru. Oh, and you're in my spot."_

 _"Your... spot?"_

 _"Yep. This is where I lay down to watch the clouds."_

 _"You came here to watch the clouds? But I thought... the Ninja game..."_

 _"Heh, I ditched them cause I got tired of them. What's your name?"_

 _Chouji felt happiness surge through him as he exclaimed, "Chouji! Akimichi Chouji!"_

Present

Shikamaru had always known that Chouji was often made fun of for his large size, but if he was applying for peer counseling, just how bad had the bullying gotten?


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I never will. *sigh**

 **A/N: I have finally finished chapter 4! *fistpumps* I'll try to update more since I haven't in like... 8 months...(this is actually kind of depressing) and because of the self-quarantine stuff I'll have more time to actually work on stories!(That is, if I don't get lazy again... tee hee) Anyways, I'm out of practice so please give me any feedback you may have, and if you really liked the chapter, then please R &R! But most of all, stay safe everyone! **

**Warning: Discusses body image issues**

"So... what you're saying is you don't want to lose weight, but you want to be popular?"

Chouji chomped on a couple barbecue chips before replying to Ino's question. "Well, I don't have to exactly be popular, but I want people to stop seeing me as a fatty."

Ino let out a huge sigh of disappointment that only served to tire Shikamaru even more. "Listen, Chouji," she said, cocking her hips to the side as a hand flipped her ridiculously long ponytail over her shoulder. "Me and Shikamaru, we've known you forever so we know that you're a sweet kid, though you can be a little... gluttonous sometimes. But people almost always judge others based on looks; that's just how humans are. So if you wanna fit in and not be made fun of for how you look, you gotta change or do something to make sure they don't have the power to do that! You can't always have the best of both worlds, y'know?"

"B-but..." Chouji's lips trembled as he looked down at the ground. "I've tried so many times to lose weight through diets but I can never lose more than a pound or two. I just love eating too much!" Shikamaru internally panicked as he saw Chouji's eyes becoming more moist by the second. He opened his mouth to offer some words of comfort to Chouji when Ino's infamous temper erupted.

"SO DO I! I LOVE EATING TOO! BUT GUESS WHAT?! I'M NOT LETTING THAT STOP ME FROM WEIGHING 110 POUNDS! SO STOP COMPLAINING! SERIOUSLY, WHAT WERE YOU PLANNING TO DO HUH?!"

"I-I don't know," Chouji whimpered, cowering alongside Shikamaru in the corner. "That's why I came to talk with the Peer Counseling Program."

"H-hey Ino, I think maybe we should just calm down and talk thi-" Shikamaru started, nervously attempting to pat her on the back. At the contact of his hand on her back, she shot him a glare that obviously said 'Stay out of this', and like the man he is, he withdrew back into the corner.

"I _am_ calm," Ino raved. Chouji let out a small squeak in terror. "You boys just need to understand that since our dilemma here is about dieting and looking good, you need to leave this to ME. This is my area of expertise. GOT IT?"

"Um, quick question?" Chouji raised his hand timidly as if in class.

"WHAT?"

"Are you really an expert on dieting?" Ino smirked at his question, her eyes glistening with pride.

"Whyyy of course! Do you think I'd lie about that?"

"Really," Shikamaru deadpanned. "Cause personally I think 110 pounds is pretty underweight for a girl your age."

Ino just turned to smile at him innocently before slapping him in the face twice, leaving him with two glowing red hand marks on his cheeks. She then walked(though she was practically skipping) away from the shocked boys, acting as if nothing had just happened.

"Man, women are scary," Shikamaru muttered, tenderly caressing his now swollen cheeks.

"Well, you didn't have to call her underweight," Chouji admitted. "Dieting is hard, y'know."

"OH YEAH!" Ino's voice called from the other side of the room. "CHOUJI, I HAVE A BOOK ON DIETING AT HOME, I CAN LEND IT TO YOU IF YOU WANT!"

Shikamaru chuckled as he watched Chouji's face light up as he yelled back, "Yes, please! Thank you!"

"YEAH, NO PROBLE-"

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" a loud hiss from the librarian resonated through library. Chouji's eyes widened with guilt as he clamped his hands over his mouth. Shikamaru just let out a tired sigh. _How is it possible for someone to shush so loud?_

"Don't worry about it, Chouji. It's just the librarian what can she do to us anyways?" Shikamaru grumbled, leaning against the wall as he let out a huge yawn. Chouji nodded meekly and removed his hands from his mouth, though Shikamaru could tell that he was still wary from the way his eyes kept darting back to the librarian.

"Here," he finally said, handing Chouji his family size barbecue chip bag. _Even if he wasn't trying to lose weight, I don't think it's healthy to eat this many chips..._ "Have some chips, there's.. uh... something that I kinda wanna talk with you about."

Chouji took the chips out of his hand with a curious look on his face. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, I uh," Shikamaru started, nervously scratching the back of his hand as he tried to the right words. "You see, you know how Ino is, she tends to think that she's right all the time, and even though she's not, she does sometimes make some good points and she means well. Yes, people do tend to judge others based on looks, and I'm not gonna try to be a saint and say that it's wrong and hateful and blah blah blah because then I'd be a hypocrite. I have judged people based on their looks before without thinking based on prejudices, and sometimes their personality _did_ match their image. I definitely would agree that it's not good to judge people only on looks but... AGHHH I don't know how to describe this without sounding like a jerk but.." He let out a tired sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose as words kept escaping him. _How does Dad always make this look so easy?_

"Anyways, what I'm trying to say is you can't blame people for judging others. That's just kinda how it is in life. But... at the same time, like Ino said, you have a choice. You can end up conforming to their expectations, try to go against it by changing, or..." Shikamaru finally looked up at Chouji in the eyes. Chouji was staring up at him in awe, slowly munching on a barbecue chip that looked suspiciously like a frog. Shikamaru cleared his throat again before continuing. "Or you could just be yourself. I personally think that's the best way to go, but it's your life. You choose how you want to be seen, and while Ino and I can help you make the choice and achieve your goals, in the end... it's up to YOU and you only."

"Besides," he drawled, giving Chouji a lopsided albeit tired grin. "If those people are too stupid to realize that you're a great person, it's better that you don't become friends with them anyway. They're just not worth it. And by the way," Shikamaru lowered his voice and beckoned Chouji to lean in closer. "Don't tell Ino I said this but if she gets any skinnier from that diet of hers, I'm not sure any guy's gonna wanna date her until she gains back some weight. If you ask me, people just look more attractive when they have a healthy amount of fat, y'know? Just keep that in mind if she keeps pushing you to become too skinny." He patted Chouji on the back awkwardly, though he was grimacing on the inside. _Man, I really do suck at these kinds of talks. I just want to crawl into a hole and die now. And sorry Ino for talking behind your back, you're not that skinny but your weight has been recently looking kinda unhealthy..._

"Shikamaru..." Chouji cried, tears springing out of his eyes. "You really are a good person."

Shikamaru stared at him in shock. Chouji liked his attempt at a power speech? "O-oh, well you're welcome? Uh we should probably get going though, it's almost 4 o'clock and almost everyone else in the Peer Counseling Program has left." Only 5 other students and Asuma-sensei were left and they were on the other side of the library, having what seemed to be a deep discussion.

"Oh yeah!" Chouji perked up. "We almost missed snacktime!" Shikamaru sweatdropped. _Snacktime? Which meal do these barbecue chips belong to then?_ He was brought back out of his thoughts as Chouji grabbed their bags and briskly started walking towards the exit. "I know a really good sweet shop that sells the best chestnut candies in Konoha!" Chouji babbled on, mostly to himself. "It's called Amaguriama and..."

"Oh, hey Chouji! Wait up!" Shikamaru scrambled, trying to catch up with his childhood friend who was suddenly walking at 25 miles per hour. Chouji stopped in his rant about different flavored chestnut candies to turn around and wait for Shikamaru. When he finally caught up, he smiled happily at Shikamaru, and for a moment, Shikamaru felt a strong sense of deja vu as he was reminded of the day they had first met. He chuckled quietly at the memory. It was so long ago yet it was almost as if nothing had really changed.

"What are you laughing at?" Chouji inquired curiously, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Shikamaru gave a small laugh again before shaking his head. "Nah, it's nothing."

Chouji didn't push any further with the questions. Probably because he wanted to hurry to Amaguriama to buy half the sweets there. "Oh but I don't think you should criticize Ino's weight too much. She probably works very hard with her diet to stay thin so it's a good thing she didn't hear you back at the library. I don't think she'd like it all."

"Aha ha ha... I guess not." He sighed, looking up in search of clouds. But he soon forgot about Ino and her diet as the two boys reached the sweet shop, enjoying warm roasted chestnuts under the clear blue sky.

 **A/N: I feel like this chapter became too sappy in a lot of parts... I think it's cause I've just been stuck at home for too long lol. However, I also don't want anyone to misunderstand the part where Shikamaru calls Ino "too skinny" because for a while, Shikmaru IS going to be pretty insensitive when it comes to girls. But I don't want him to be perceived as body-shaming her(which he is not) because not only is that seriously messed up, it also contradicts his views in this fanfic. He's trying to convince to Chouji to just be himself and not care about what other people say, though he has the choice of doing a diet or not. When he was talking about how "skinny" Ino is, he was trying to show Chouji that taking a diet too seriously can lead to the opposite of a desired effect(though he should have phrased it differently or used a different example, but this is to lead up to his character development). Shikamaru** ** _will_** **bring attention(in his thoughts only though) to her weight multiple times in this fic but this will be because he is concerned about her health, which will actually also lead to contribute to a major arc later in the story. So please do not misunderstand this chapter as consenting body-shaming because I would never want to advertise or see it advertised anywhere. If you still feel uncomfortable, please send me a message because I want readers to be able to enjoy my stories without feeling so. If you also have any other feedback I would greatly appreciate it. Sorry this author's note got so long...**

 ** _EXTRA- Ino's Selfcare Tips(because she's an expert lol)_**

 **\- eat 3 meals a day(but healthy snacks like apple slices or nuts between meals are okay)**

 **-try to minimize junk food like chips or sodas; have a "cheat day" to eat junk food instead :)**

 **-do not skip on breakfast! :(  
~Because you've been sleeping throughout the night, your body has been fasting(or abstaining from food for a long time), so you need to eat to "break the fast" to replenish your body with nutrients  
~Your body feels more awake if you eat breakfast! Even if you're not hungry, eating something can help to keep you from becoming mentally and physically depleted of nutrients  
~ breakfast ideas: an apple, a slice of toast, yogurt with chopped strawberries and granola, cereal, a banana, breakfast burrito if you're hungry, scrambled eggs, & pancakes**

 **-if you read the last tip and thought "haha jokes on you, I only get 3 hours of sleep at night" just know sleep:  
~ will help your acne and any other skin conditions  
~restores the water balance in your body, getting rid of puffy bags, dark circles, & dryness in your skin  
~ gives your skin more glow  
~ helps you to manage your weight **

**\- go for a run every day for at least 10 minutes; you can go at an easy pace and still burn calories!**


End file.
